After such a long time...

... I am finally working on a portrait again! This image has been in my mind since early December and it won't let me go, so now it is in progress. I'm hoping to finish it next week and show you all. I have to say though, I love how these faces always reflect my very own style. I never thought I'd have a style, but I guess I do!

Also, before the Holiday Season and knitted up a storm and sold most of it. However, here are a few beauties that are still in my Etsy shop along with other pretty things - actually I finished two of them after Christmas. 

This yarn is from Italy and not just beautiful with the silver sparkle, but also incredibly soft! I also made one for myself to keep...of course! After all, that kind of blue is my color.

These little scarflettes were just the most fun to make and they look great! I made a few and have two of them left. 

Here's my absolute favorite for now. Again, Italian yarn that has these wonderful knots all over. And those colors... 

It was a joy to knit and is gorgeous to look at and I'm making one for myself as well!! 

Thanks for all your comments on my last post. I've been feeling much more settled again and have been spending time being creative and just relaxing. I hadn't thought about what Anne said in her comment - the time after the holidays is always a little unsettling as is the beginning of a new year.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!!

❧ Silke

Feeling unsettled

With Ramses purring on my lap, I am thinking about yesterday afternoon and how unsettled I had felt. All afternoon. I had free time to do whatever I wanted to do ~ paint, knit, sew, nap, read, watch a movie, blog etc. Yet I couldn't find my place. Do you ever feel that way?

Another postcard soon on it's way to a new home

One of our neighbors stopped by for a wrench as they are moving the last things out of their house. It occurred to me that everyone immediately around us is moving. That in itself is not unusual here in the US, as we are a very mobile society.

What is unusual is that we aren't the ones moving. For the first time, we are the ones staying and I have to admit I don't know how to feel about that. Daniel and I have gypsy blood in our veins and have - up to now - moved about every three years, if not to a new town, then to a new house. We've now been here for six years and it feels odd.

Is this it? Forever more? Are there any new adventures out there for us? Of course, I know the answers to all of those questions - after all, all of life is an adventure and nothing ever stays the same. And the biggest adventure lies in going inward, not moving around on the outside.

But I guess for today, I am trying to figure out how to feel settled not just on the outside, but in my emotions as well. How to grow while staying in place...

❧ Silke

More mail art

Good morning, dear friends! Once again, it is early and quiet around here. It reminds me every time how much I have always been an early morning person. Somehow time seems to move slower when most around me are still sleeping.

I made another two postcards yesterday. This is one of them ~ the other I'll show you tomorrow. The colors just clashed too much to put them together. I'm having so much fun with these. Now I just have to have a dry day so I can spray them with varnish outside and then send them off!

I would like to send them directly through the mail - I love the thought of original art being mailed as a real postcard (and they are pre-printed as postcards). And I don't care if they become smudged on the way, but you might. Any thoughts?

I'm also working on a painting, a portrait after such a long time of not doing them. And I haven't gotten past the sketch phase yet. All is ready, but somehow I'm nervous to start. Fear of not doing it right? Oh, whatever! I'm going to get started on it RIGHT NOW!

Wishing you a wonder-filled day with many happy surprises!

P.S. I am turning on the letter verification on my comments for just a few days. I keep getting spammed every day. Blogger filters them out, but I still get all those e-mails in my inbox. I think turning on the verification for a few days will have them move on from here. Sorry about the inconvenience for you!

❧ Silke

Living in the Now

It is early morning and the world around me is still dark and sleeping. Winslow woke me up at 4:30 a.m. because he needed to chase a raccoon from our backyard. So, I decided to just stay up and read and visit some blogs.

Many of the blog posts a came across this morning talked about living more in the moment, which is such a big theme with me as well. So, I thought I'd write a little about that while showing you more pictures from our recent cruise - these from beautiful Grand Turk. 

Living in the moment has become such a challenge for me as the world around me seems to be speeding up. My mind is constantly engaged and flitting about, and I am sure much of that is due to the wonders of the internet. I love the internet and how it is allowing me to be connected to the world.

And at the same time, I crave the quiet times, when I can just sit with my knitting, a good book, stare at the fish tank or into the trees outside, listen to the birds singing, or paint in my studio. 

However, the trick for me is not being able to be in the moment when all is peaceful. That's easy! The trick for me is to practice it well enough during those quiet times that I can find that same inner peace when life is going crazy. 

And life always goes crazy at some point. Stuff happens. In everyone's life. Mine included. And that's when I want to be able to remember that the present moment, the NOW is all there is. Ever.

The past has passed and the future is still becoming. But right now is when life is happening - and I want to be more present for that. I believe that how I live each moment shapes my past and creates my future.

I also noticed that when I live more in the present moment, fear pretty much has no room there, as I am usually fearful about stuff that hasn't happened yet (oh, the imagination I have!) or feeling regretful about events that have already passed. Such a waste of precious time! 

So, a few days ago I went to my rather extensive personal library of inspiring books and pulled out two that I really connected with when I first read them a few years ago:

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are by Byron Katie. When I first read them, I knew I wanted to read and study them again and NOW it that time.

And because I am a sharer, you'll probably hear tidbits along the way...

Right now, I am sitting on a comfortable chair in Daniel's studio upstairs, the computer is humming, the only light in here is from a Christmas light in the window, everyone else is still asleep, outside an owl is hooting and I can sense the beginning of dawn.

It is a perfect moment!

Wishing many of those for you today and every day! 

❧ Silke

Morning Light

It is a new morning of a new year and somehow everything (this happens every year) feels fresh and new. It feels good to me to leave 2012 behind and embark on a new year. I wonder what it will bring?

Morning Light

acrylics on canvas

5 x 5 x 1.5 inches

We celebrated New Years Eve with good friends and good food - a wonderful way to say good-bye to the old and usher in the new! Today we will relax and enjoy the leftovers of the good food. We will read and maybe paint, take a walk, maybe a nap, and I will enjoy visiting some of your blogs...

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy start to 2013!

❧ Silke